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| March 3, 2009 |
| Here are the Web's best new links about compliance and cost aspects of plan operation, design and policy. |
Today's sponsor is Employee Benefits Institute of America (EBIA)
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
| EBIA's In Person Seminar Series |
| Look to EBIA for education and training on Cafeteria Plans, ERISA, COBRA, HIPAA, and Consumer-Driven Health Care. EBIA's spring seminars will include all the latest employee benefits developments, including the new COBRA premium assistance and changes to the HIPAA special enrollment, privacy, and security requirements. For information about CE credit, course materials, speakers, locations, and agenda details, and to register, please visit EBIA's In Person Seminars. |
[Official Guidance]
From DOL: 'FAQs About COBRA For Workers And Their Families'
Excerpt: "Q1: I have heard that the Stimulus package signed by the President included a new temporary COBRA premium reduction. I would like more information. . . . Q9: What can I do if my former employer's group health plan denies my application for a the premium reduction?" (Employee Benefits Security Administration, U.S. Department of Labor)
[Guidance Overview]
EEOC Proposes Rules to Bar Genetic Discrimination
Excerpt: "The rules, which implement a law signed last year by President George W. Bush, would bar employers from deliberately acquiring genetic information from employees and job applicants, and would restrict employers from disclosing genetic information about workers and applicants." (Workforce Management; free registration required)
[Guidance Overview]
Stimulus Package Raises Health Coverage Tax Credit and Expands HIPAA Privacy
Excerpt: "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (P.L. 111-5) includes provisions pertaining to the health coverage tax credit (HCTC) available to individuals qualified under the Trade Adjustment Act (TAA) or for Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation pension benefits, as well as to HIPAA privacy and administrative simplification provisions." (Wolters Kluwer)
[Guidance Overview]
Part D Plans Have Only One Month to Comply With E-Prescribing Rules
Excerpt: "With just a month to go before the April 1, 2009, compliance deadline, some Part D plans still are not ready to support some e-prescribing technologies outlined by CMS in an April 2008 final rule. And plan sponsors can expect more e-prescribing rules from CMS -- possibly every 12 to 24 months, one industry insider predicts -- as more providers adopt e-prescribing technology, spurred by incentives created by the 2008 Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) and funding provided by the economic stimulus law signed Feb. 17 by President Obama." (AISHealth.com)
[Guidance Overview]
DOL's Final FMLA Regulations on Military Family Leave
Excerpt: "The Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued final Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) regulations addressing the new military family leave entitlements under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2008. There are two new types of military leave: (1) qualifying exigency and (2) military caregiver. The regulations took effect Jan. 16." (Watson Wyatt Worldwide)
EEOC's Proposed GINA Regulations
Excerpt: "[T]he EEOC presented its notice of proposed rulemaking under the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act. Over the next 60 days, the public is invited to comment on the proposed rules. Ross Runkel has a summary of the main GINA regulatory issues at his Law Memo Employment Law blog; those issues include: Information acquired in relation to a 'voluntary wellness program.' Specifically, what does 'voluntary' mean? Information acquired from 'documents that are commercially and publicly available.' Specifically, shall the regs mention personal web sites, blogs, and social media sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter)? DNA testing for law enforcement purposes. The proposal states: 'The EEOC invites comments on the impact of this exception on law enforcement.'" (Workplace Prof Blog)
FSA Changes Sought
Excerpt: "Rules applying to health flexible [spending accounts] would change under a bill recently introduced. HR 544, introduced by Rep. Edward Royce, R-Calif., would allow up to $500 of unused money in such accounts to be permanently carried over to subsequent plan years. Currently, unused money must be used by March 15 following the year during which the money was deposited. The bill also would allow the unused amounts to be rolled into certain other savings plans, including health savings accounts or qualified retirement plans." (Investment News; free registration required)
Employers Review Who Is Covered Under Health Care Plans
Excerpt: "With cost savings in mind, some employers are conducting dependent eligibility audits to accurately determine who is covered under their plan; according to the IFEBP: 26% of U.S. employers conduct eligibility audits for their health care plans." (Wolters Kluwer)
Automotive Engineers Applying Expertise in Manufacturing Efficiency to Health Care Delivery
Excerpt: "Multiplied across America's hospitals and doctor's offices, . . . inefficiency totals more than half of the $2.1 trillion spent on health care. Defensive medicine, inefficient health care administration and the cost of treating preventable conditions such as obesity account for $1.2 trillion annually, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated in a study published in April 2008. Employers, which provide insurance to about 60 percent of Americans, absorb the bulk of that cost, which does not include the cost to worker productivity." (Workforce Management; free registration required)
The New Retiree Health VEBAs
Excerpt: "The article concludes that the new VEBAs may be an appropriate vehicle for pre-funding retiree health benefits for some employers, particularly financially distressed employers with significant retiree health liabilities and large union forces, but they are not a panacea for the country's health care financing woes." (NYU Review of Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation via Social Science Research Network)
America's Retirees Working to Protect Health Care Benefits They Earned
Excerpt: "'There are currently an estimated 18.5 million American retirees and baby boomers in the United States with health benefits being significantly threatened,' Miller says. 'If cancelled by the corporations they once worked for, most would be dumped into the federal and state healthcare systems. In effect, this means their former employers would be getting an additional back-door federal bailout at the expense of the taxpayer.' The health care coverage Miller is referring to is earned retiree benefits that tens of millions of Americans earned and paid for during their working years. He says that for whatever reason, many corporations never actually set that money aside and are using the current financial turmoil to threaten the cancellation and further reduction of these benefits." (AccountingWEB, Inc.)
HSAs Continue Ascension in Spite of Sour Economy
Excerpt: "With more than six million individuals enrolled in health plans linked to HSAs at the start of the year, assets under management were valued at roughly $6.75 billion, with accounts growing at 40 percent to 60 percent per year, according to Boston-based research firm Celent. The Employee Benefit Research Institute says that more individuals are reporting account balances of at least $1,000 - 43 percent in 2008 compared to 25 percent in 2006 - and that fewer reported zero balances in 2008 than two years earlier. It also found that the percentage of account holders with no rollover fell from 23 percent to 16 percent from 2006 to 2008, while the percentage of those rolling over $1,500 or more spiked from 13 percent to 27 percent in that span." (U.S. Banker and SourceMedia, Inc.)
How to Make Electronic Medical Records a Reality
Excerpt: "IN the world of technology, inventors are hailed as heroes. Yet it is more subtle forms of innovation that typically determine the impact of a technology in the marketplace and on society. Clever engineering, smart business models and favorable economics are the key ingredients of widespread adoption and commercial success. . . . Today, Washington is about to embark on another ambitious government-guided effort to jump-start a market -- in electronic health records. The program provides a textbook look at the economic and engineering challenges of technology adoption." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Obama Picks DeParle to Lead New White House Health Reform Office
Excerpt: "[Nancy-Ann] DeParle, a former administrator of what is now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will lead the White House office charged with coordinating Obama's ambitious healthcare reform efforts with Congress." (Reuters via The New York Times; free registration required)
Health Insurers Poised for Health Care Reform
Excerpt: "The insurers are 'as vulnerable politically as they have been in the last 10 to 15 years,' said Sheryl R. Skolnick, an analyst at CRT Capital Holdings in Stamford, Conn. Given the current sentiment, the insurers understand that they won't be able to beat back all efforts at sweeping change, as they did so successfully during the Clinton administration. Instead, they are scrambling to make sure they are not perceived as obstructing the goal of making the country's health care more affordable and accessible. 'We have to transform the system,' said Ronald A. Williams, Aetna's chairman and chief executive, who has been among the most outspoken in supporting significant changes. 'There's a huge opportunity.'" (The New York Times; free registration required)
[Opinion]
Sen. Baucus Wants CBO to Be 'Creative' When Scoring Health Care Reform
Excerpt: "Sen. Baucus: [As I said earlier it's not too much of an overstatement to say CBO can make or break health care reform, and I mean that because we got to go by your numbers? Dr. Elmendorf: Senator, may I respectfully disagree that? Sen. Baucus: I do believe that there are several different intellectually honest pathways to get from here to there. It's not just one automatic, and so it needs - you got to be ever more creative to find intellectually honest pathways to get the savings we have to have - practically and both politically - to get health care reform." (United States Senate Committee on Finance via Physicians for a National Health Program)
[Opinion]
Two Health Actuaries Offer Their Prescription for Health Care Reform (PDF)
8 pages. Excerpt: "In this issue, two more health actuaries have stepped forward with their own proposals. While not strictly point counterpoint, Tony Batory and Hobson Carroll each offer an informed analysis of the issue that reflects their professional expertise as working health actuaries. They also display the independent thinking that actuaries are capable of bringing to this (and any other) debate. Health care reform is certainly not the only issue that is subject to differing opinions within the profession (pension reform comes to mind). While they may come to different conclusions, however, all actuaries at least start from the same premise: An issue is best resolved by factual analysis that's unencumbered by emotion or political fashion." (Contingencies)
[Opinion]
Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Joseph Stiglitz on Single Payer
Excerpt: "Joseph Stiglitz: I think that there are some fundamental problems in the efficiency of our healthcare system. And what we've seen is that the private healthcare insurers do not know how to deliver an efficient way. Amy Goodman: Do you support single-payer healthcare? Joseph Stiglitz: I think I've reluctantly come to the view that it's the only alternative. You know, we've tried a lot of other things. And we've been -- you know, I was in the Clinton administration, and we debated a lot of alternatives, and I've watched things as they've emerged and, you know, evolved over the last twelve, sixteen years, and I think there's a growing consensus that the private market exclusion is not going to work." (Democracy Now! via Physicians for a National Health Program)
EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com (Sponsor)
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Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
[Guidance Overview]
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and Its Impact on Employers (PDF)
25 pages. Excerpt: "[ARRA] includes a number of provisions that will have an impact on employers' compensation and benefits practices. [This Hewitt Special Report] outlines additional details concerning key human resources (HR) provisions in ARRA, including: COBRA Premium Assistance for Involuntarily Terminated Employees and Their Families; Additional Health and Benefit Provisions, including health information privacy, health information technology, comparative effectiveness research, and transit benefit parity provisions; Tax and Employment Provisions Affecting HR, including various tax, unemployment insurance, H-1B, and whistleblower provisions; and New Executive Compensation Standards for financial institutions participating in the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)." (Hewitt Associates)
[Guidance Overview]
Stimulus Act's New Restrictions on Executive Compensation (PDF)
7 pages. Excerpt: "Unlike prospective guidelines that had been issued by Treasury on February 4, 2009, these new restrictions are applicable to the approximately 360 companies that had already entered into a program under TARP, as well as companies that receive new funds from Treasury. Many believe that the new law's executive compensation provisions will serve as an incentive for companies currently under TARP to exit out of the program by returning funds to Treasury." (Buck Consultants)
Hot Trend: Companies Freezing Executive Pay
Excerpt: "In a dramatic shift since last fall, companies are moving more aggressively to freeze executive salaries and substantially reduce bonuses and stock-based awards. According to a survey of 400 managers by compensation consultancy Pearl Meyer & Partners, half said their companies have implemented or are 'strongly considering' imposing an executive salary freeze -- nearly three times as many as in a similar survey in November. Among those expecting to give raises, fewer than 6% expect to boost salaries more than 5%." (Financial Week)
EBRI Databook on Employee Benefits
Excerpt: "The EBRI Databook on Employee Benefits is maintained on-line and updated when new data is available. The date next to each chapter link indicates when data and/or links were last updated in that chapter. The EBRI Databook on Employee Benefits includes data from dozens of sources to provide a comprehensive analysis of how the employee benefits system works, who and what its various functions affect, and its relationship with the U.S. economy. The EBRI Databook includes over 400 tables and charts presenting vital statistics on the employee benefit system." (Employee Benefit Research Institute)
Finnish-Based Nokia Is Offering a Voluntary Approach to Job Loss
Excerpt: "Nokia today announced a series of voluntary measures for 'reducing personnel-related costs' during the global economic crisis, starting with an unusual deal called the Voluntary Resignation Package. The new package is available for Nokia employees worldwide, except for direct labor and senior executives. . . . The Finnish phone maker is also now urging its workers to make wider use of short-term unpaid leaves and sabbaticals. Also during 2009, the company will encourage employees not to 'cash in' their holiday time off for cash compensation, 'but to take their holiday as time off, as it is intended,' Nokia said in a statement." (BetaNews)
UAW Members Approve Concessions at Key Ford Plant
Excerpt: "United Auto Workers members at a key Ford Motor Co. assembly plant have approved a new concessionary agreement by a wide margin, according to a posting Monday, March 2, on the Web site of UAW Local 900 in Wayne, Michigan. . . . About 42,000 UAW-represented workers at Ford's U.S. operations have until March 9 to vote on the contract. The new agreement calls on workers to give up lump-sum bonuses and cost-of-living raises over the next two years. It also limits overtime pay and supplemental unemployment benefits." (Workforce Management; free registration required)
Suit Seeks to Force Government to Extend Benefits to Same-Sex Couples
Excerpt: "The legal advocacy group that successfully argued for sex-same marriage in Massachusetts intends to file suit here on Tuesday seeking some federal benefits for spouses in such marriages. The target is the Defense of Marriage Act, passed by Congress in 1996, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage. That law denies federal benefits, like Social Security survivors' payments, to spouses in such marriages." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Benefit Plan Oversight During a Recessionary Economy
Excerpt: "During this current recessionary economic cycle, most general counsel are focused on maintaining their companies' core business. While keeping the organization competitive, or even functional, during this unprecedented phase of American business, GCs must not overlook the qualified benefit plan review. Consistent review of the qualified benefit plans will provide a better standard of review if a decision is challenged in court, offer structure for the plan fiduciary to implement his Employee Retirement Income Security Act duties, and afford the opportunity to address any administrative or operational challenges before being audited by the Internal Revenue Service or the Department of Labor." (Law.com)
Newly Posted Events
2009 Web/Telephone Seminar: Advanced HSAs
Nationwide on April 28, 2009
presented by Ascensus
2009 Web/Telephone Seminar: Basic IRAs
Nationwide on April 9, 2009
presented by Ascensus
2009 Web/Telephone Seminar: Coverdell Education Savings Accounts
Nationwide on April 7, 2009
presented by Ascensus
2009 Web/Telephone Seminar: HSA Basics
Nationwide on April 21, 2009
presented by Ascensus
2009 Web/Telephone Seminar: IRA Excess Contributions
Nationwide on April 16, 2009
presented by Ascensus
2009 Web/Telephone Seminar: Selecting the Best 401(k) Plan Design
Nationwide on April 14, 2009
presented by Ascensus
Newly Posted Press Releases
Craig Hoffman Named ASPPA General Counsel and Director of Regulatory Affairs
American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA)
UNIFI Retirement Targets $3-$20 Million Plan Market
UNIFI Companies Retirement Plans
HHS Choice Sebelius Reflects Obama Commitment to Quality, Affordable Health Care for All Americans
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
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Senior Actuarial Consultant
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